Figured I would keep a log of the work I am doing right now behind the scenes. I have been putting a lot of time and careful consideration in to migrating the server and finding us a new home. The road will be long as I am doing a re install of the software from scratch.

Tonight I have prototyped the new server setup. I will be runnning php-fpm with a server called nginx. So far so good. The server seems fast and stable as I have done a fresh phpbb install there. I will be installing this all on a brand new box so you will not notice any changes here untill its ready. Next will be to migrate the database. I will do a number of test migrations before the big day so I can be sure about the work flow. Currently our database is 600MB. That's just text! I might look at doing a prune of dead topics to reduce the size.

So my checklist so far is

1. Server Install (check)2. Database migration - hard3. Plugin Migration - could be very hard!4. New Theme - yes when the new server comes everyone will have to use the same theme 5. Migrate the domain across. - should be easy

tek | Admin and TVAus Founder.

It's unlikely that I will respond to PM's so please tweet me if there are any issues with the site. My twitter handle is @stewartmatheson.

Update: OK I am in to the backend of the site thanks to the help for aussieHQ. Shame their business people are not as good as their tech people. I just figured out a way to manage the database migration. I am going to try and use replication. Basically it will keep one database in sync with another and then the slave DB will be able to take over from the new server with all the data up to date and intact. I am currently investigating the best way to do this or if it's even possible with aussie hq. Stay tuned.

tek | Admin and TVAus Founder.

It's unlikely that I will respond to PM's so please tweet me if there are any issues with the site. My twitter handle is @stewartmatheson.

The_Admiral wrote:I don't envy you getting involved in the backend (no pun intended) but can appreciate all the hard work it will be.

Thanks for keeping us up to date.

NP: It's been nice actually. I have been reading over some of the code I wrote as an 18 year old and wow its very cringe worthy. When I started tvaus I had no idea what I was doing. Now days I am much better and people pay me to do this work .

UPDATE: I have migrated the database over to my new test server that I have been doing all the prototyping on. It worked! After the update all your posts and accounts migrated accross. Nice one! I was able to login and everything. Avatars have not made it but they are in files and where not migrated accross yet. In good time. Like I said before I am installing the latest version of phpBB from scrach so I will only be migrating over everything that we need. There is a LOT of junk in the code base that has built up over the 12 or so years. This is a real boon for me as I did not expect the database migration to be as easy as it was.

Next I will be focusing getting the mods that we use installed. This includes the points system. I will be doing a migration from the old server for these mods. I don't really want to update the 3rd party plugin's at this stage... maybe when we are all at home on our new server. The server will be hosted with Amazon web services. Amazon is an awesome web host and have a lot of very powerful features. When I have the migration finished I will be in a position where I will be able to start building new features and enhancing the board for you. That's the real work that I can't wait to get it to but all in time.

At this stage there will be more downtime when we do the final migration. I would love to get it done this week but I am not holding out for that to be honest. It won't effect you guys until I have to migrate the database. Because we are on shared hosting I am not able to do a zero down time migration so I will have to close the board while the database is being updated and the DNS changes over to the new server. There might be around 8 hours downtime and I will try and get it done over night for minimal disruption.

tek | Admin and TVAus Founder.

It's unlikely that I will respond to PM's so please tweet me if there are any issues with the site. My twitter handle is @stewartmatheson.

UPDATE: OK after a few hours of work things are still looking nice! I have the board up 95% working on my prototype server. Everything is working except for your avatars which don't seem to be loading at this stage. Thought it might be worth while running a few bench marks against the new server.

greysfan wrote:Thanks for all the updates tek. As someone who does web design on the side i don't envy you and the backend of all of this.

No bother. It's awesome to come back to this. I am spending time fixing mistakes that I made 10 years ago. Feels great!

UPDATE: So it looks like porting the mods across to the new code base is going to be work work than I thought. PHPBB does not keep it's mods under one folder. They are sprinkled though the code base. I will need to go though the code base folder by folder and make sure using diffs that every file that we need for the mods we are running are there. It's going to take a bit more time than I thought but it will be nice to pull the guts of phpBB apart as I plan to make modifications of my own just for TVAUS. So I am going to take the time and understand how the phpBB mods hang together. As I am doing this I will be porting the old mods over. Will take some time. I am going to try and do at least 2 hours on tvaus per day and at that rate I figure I can port most of the mods across and when I am done come away with a reasonable understanding of how the mods work and ideas on how I can start building them for our needs. The biggest one is the points system however currently avatars are not showing either.

I will keep you updated with the migration this week and post my findings here every few days.

tek | Admin and TVAus Founder.

It's unlikely that I will respond to PM's so please tweet me if there are any issues with the site. My twitter handle is @stewartmatheson.

UPDATE: So I have hit a snag. AutoMOD the tool that's used to install mods on phpBB does not seem to be playing nice. It's not appearing after claiming that it was successfully installed. It's strange. I have created a post on phpBB forums seeking help. See if someone can suggest a fix for me. In the mean time I have started working on the new design. Nothing to show yet but I will try and post some screens when I have got something I am happy with.

tek | Admin and TVAus Founder.

It's unlikely that I will respond to PM's so please tweet me if there are any issues with the site. My twitter handle is @stewartmatheson.

greysfan wrote:Thanks for all the updates tek. As someone who does web design on the side i don't envy you and the backend of all of this.

What kind of web design do you do?

Just Wordpress and CMSMS are the 2 that i've focused on. I've just done a few jobs for friends at this stage but i've sort of lost track of all the updates in html and what not in the past 6 months. Its forever changing.